The Nut & Seed Bar Recipe You Wish You Had Earlier (Warning: they'll leave you wanting more!)

These Nut & Seed Bars are a nutrient dense treat to satisfy all of your chocolately, sweet, salty, and fat cravings.  The best part is that you know exactly what's in it.

This is a no bake recipe.  Blend, mix, melt, and set! 

Makes 20 squares

Nut & Seed Date Base:

• 18 large medjool dates (450g)

• 3 cups hemp hearts (375g)

• 2 cups dry roasted mixed nuts (250g)

• 3 tablespoons of chia seeds

• 1 tablespoon of millet (optional)

• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt (adjust to taste)

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (adjust to taste)

Chocolate Top:

• 2 cups Dark chocolate (225g)

• Sea salt

Helpful to have on hand:

• Vitamix, Nutribullet or food processor to turn your dates into a paste

• Large mixing bowl

• 2 - 9x5” loaf pans lined with parchment paper. This is crucial so your bars come out easily whilst keeping form

• Microwave or double boiler to melt your chocolate

Directions:

1. Place your dates in a bowl and cover them with boiled water. Let them soak (about 5-10 minutes).

2. Line pans with parchment paper on the bottom and at least 2” up the sides

3. Drain all of the water from the dates. Blend them in the food processor until a very thick paste forms and there are no large clumps of dates

4. Add the date paste into the large bowl.  Then add hemp hearts, chia seeds.  Hand mix well until combined and all dry ingredients are coated with date.  You have a very sticky cohesive blend

5. Add the cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Mix again until well combined. Try a small amount and adjust salt and cinnamon to your taste

6. Lastly, add the mixed nuts.  Keep a few aside to decorate the top.

7. Divide the mixture evenly into two. Firmly press the mixture into the bottom of each parchment paper-lined pan.  Level the top and fill corners.

8. Melt the chocolate. Use the microwave (30 second intervals mixing in between) or a double boiler on the stove until the chocolate has fully melted. Pay attention as it's melting to ensure it does not burn.  (Never get water into melted chocolate - it will seize!)

9. Pour half of the melted chocolate mix onto each of the pans. Decorate with a few whole nuts (optional). Sprinkle with some sea salt

10. Let the chocolate set in the fridge (2 hours will do)

11. Cut into bars or squares and enjoy!

Notes:

• Avoid using dates that are dry and hard before you soak them. These dates will not form a sticky paste as well as tender dates do. This will impact your ability to keep your mixture together

• Use whatever nut and seed mixture you’d like (pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, coconut flakes etc.). Be sure you keep the same wet to dry ratio in the recipe

• Using nuts that are roasted gives you more flavour and less of a rubbery texture once mixed with wet ingredients

• Try your mixture before pressing it into your pans. This is the time to make adjustments

• Using 2 - 9x5” loaf pans works best for this recipe, however, you can use 1 - 8x8” or 1 - 9x9” square pan. You would see that the bar is thicker or thinner as you adjust for different pans. I would stick to pans that give you roughly a 3/4” to 1.25” thick bar. Any thinner and the bar may not stick together as well

• Salt brings out the sweetness of the dates and the fattiness of the nuts. Keep in mind if your nuts were salted or not when adding salt

Nutritional Information for each square:

Calories 352, 

Fat 22.1g, 

Carbs 27g, 

Protein 11.8g,